With the advent of computers and computer networks, including the Internet, massive quantities and types of data have become available to computer users. Computer users may now obtain virtually any type of data in any quantity from virtually any data source. However, the challenge is in assimilating and presenting the data obtained in a meaningful manner to the computer user.
Clearly, the types, quantities, and sources of data available to computer users are virtually without limit. However, one specific example of available data that is particularly illustrative of the type with which the present invention may be used is financial market data. Financial market data includes any and all market information, current or historical, such as: the trading prices and volumes of stocks, bonds, stock funds, bond funds, market indices, commodities, commodity indices, monetary exchange rates, and any other market trading data. Investors have long had at their disposal voluminous amounts of textual and numerical financial market data. They have even been able to view such data graphically, such as with a bar graph, line diagram or pie chart. However, such graphical displays of data still have drawbacks in that they do not necessarily convey to the investor an immediate sense of how quickly the price or volume of a particular stock may be changing or trading at any given instant. Consequently, the investor is required to perform more mental calculation than she would like in order to obtain the desired information.
To solve the foregoing and other shortcomings in the prior art, a method and apparatus are needed for graphically representing data to a user in a manner that immediately and visually conveys to the user changes to the data. The method and apparatus should assimilate data quickly and easily, and should be capable of representing a plurality of data values and/or types simultaneously. As explained in the following, the present invention provides a method and apparatus that meets these criteria and solves other problems in the prior art.